Hot Topics:

Some Boulder residents fall to their knees and yoga mats, praying for rain

By Aimee Heckel Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
06/28/2012 10:36:21 AM MDT

Updated:
06/28/2012 02:10:27 PM MDT

Colleen Basham, right, Michelle Pitcher and Philip Jones participate in a rain prayer at Om Time in Boulder.
(JEREMY PAPASSO)

When Sraddha Pavia walked outside after her meditation on Tuesday, she says she was pleasantly sprinkled with the drizzling of rain.

Pavia has been leading a rain-invoking meditation four days a week at Om Time, and hopes to continue it until Colorado's raging wildfires settle back into nature's calmer balance, she says.

The Boulder yoga and meditation teacher believes in intention -- cultivated from a conscious heart, extending outward. And in a way, she says, that is how she is helping fight the fires.

Pavia is not a firefighter on the front line, but she is helping lead the efforts that begin inside each resident -- efforts that she hopes culminate in a downpour.

A lit candle sits on the floor in front of Michelle Pitcher, right, and Philip Jones during a rain prayer.
(JEREMY PAPASSO)

"I think if we all have a collective intention for rain rather than focus on the destruction of the fire -- really bringing in the feeling within ourselves or rain -- it will really be amazingly beneficial," Pavia said on Wednesday.

Even before the first flame burst in Boulder's mountains Tuesday afternoon, spiritual centers and residents across Boulder County had been on their knees and yoga mats praying and meditating for rain.

In fact, a Boulder man was ticketed early June after he dropped marbles into the Boulder Reservoir as part of a ritual in which he said he was praying for rain to stop the High Park Fire.

But there is plenty of spiritual activity going on beyond that. Facebook walls have been blanketed with graphics and status updates, praying for Colorado. Others are trying to organize a statewide rain dance, or opening up their houses to gather and pray.

Pavia offers her rain meditations noon to 12:45 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and she is exploring the idea of aligning with fire, water and air in the body during her yoga classes, 1:30-2:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday.

On Wednesday, she brought in rain sticks and led a Native American invocation for rain. She also utilized an Indian musical scale traditionally used to invoke the god of rain.

Also at Om Time, yoga instructor Ina Sahaja will be incorporating a movement meditation called "Jala Namaskar" into her 3:15-4:15 p.m. Thursday classes. It's similar to a "sun salutation," but specifically for water.

"In modern yoga, we actively engage in spiritual alchemy from the physical plane to more subtle levels," Sahaja says. "In order to manifest specific experiences of reality, we first must cultivate these same qualities within. This is how the namaskar, which most literally means an 'act of reverance,' works in modern yoga."

Earlier this week, Trista Hollerbach led a 62-minute meditation and prayer ceremony at the Adi Shakti Center in Boulder. At 5:30 p.m. Sunday, the center is holding a public prayer and chant gathering, with all donations going toward helping people affected by the fire. Other teachers at the center will also be focusing their meditations on the fire this week, Hollerbach says.

The Boulder Psychic Institute has been offering Earth healings. The Buddhist Association of Colorado is chanting the Diamond Sutra today to pray for rain. Boulderite and yoga instructor Tabitha Farrar is asking her classes to meditate on it, too. She posted on her Facebook wall:

"Whether you believe in prayer and meditation or not, yield to this: Mother Nature has us beat! No physical human intervention will be big enough to calm her. Watering these fires with our tankers and all our physical efforts accumulate to a gallant but ineffective practice at this stage. All you can do is pray, so get over the barriers of your ego and start asking for rain."

And in that, she says there is something humbling about the disaster. The fires have built a sense of community spirit, she says.

Many local churches have initiated prayer chains and fasting, and have incorporated the topic into their services.

Instead of fasting from food, Robin Flores says her family fasted from TV, so she could involve her kids (because restraining food from a toddler wouldn't be a very spiritual experience for anyone in the family, she jokes). She says she believes God hears prayers, citing 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

"I think God is bigger than any disaster and more powerful than fire, wind and drought," Flores says.

Last Sunday, Longmont's Prairie Mountain Zen Center did a short "metta" meditation for people, animals and forests affected but the fire. First, in silence, the congregation brought to mind the people and land affected, according to head monk Cliff Clusin. Then, they recited out loud: "May they be safe. May they be happy. May they be healthy. May they live with ease."

"I think the purpose of meditation and the metta chant is, if we do them daily, then our attitude is prepared for disasters and emergency situations," Clusin says.

Ralph Shepard, of Longmont, a member of Calvary Church, says his small group has been talking about faith and trusting God, even when they cannot see any indications that God is doing, or will do, what he has said he will do. Even when the odds are against it. Like last Saturday night. The weather forecast indicated no chance of rain for days.

Enter: Faith.

Shepard and his small group prayed for God to bring rain. And Sunday night, the weatherman announced something shocking was happening. It was raining.

Shepard admits no one on Earth understands why God lets seemingly bad things happen. But he says he does know two things.

First, he says, God can and does use negative circumstances to show his grace and goodness and "raise up people to have compassion and mercy."

And secondly, disasters give the community a chance to come together and realize what truly matters.

"In a crisis, we are asked: Do we pull together or do we pull apart?" he says. "Does our faith really make a difference? Do I lose faith in the middle of this, or do I find a reality in my faith?"

Then there is Longmont resident Ben Donahue. He says he turned down an invitation to join a rain dance this week.

Don't get him wrong; he's all for hoping the best and grieving with those who have suffered losses, he says. But it's ironic, he says, to pray for a deity to send rain to put out a fire that was started by lightning -- "the lightning which is also, presumably, caused by the same deity," he says.

"I don't share their need to call on a higher power, especially if that higher power is also presumably responsible for the fire in the first place."

Instead, Donahue says, it's more important to keep your mind focused, and prayer is an unnecessary and potentially fatal distraction.

"Get up, go out and start doing something to help that is both effective and needed," he says. "A person who lost their home is not comforted by your prayers. In fact, it may seem downright insulting. But a warm blanket and some food might help."

Boulder is pretty good at producing rock bands, and by "rock," we mean the in-your-face, guitar-heavy, leather-clad variety — you know, the good kind. For a prime example, look no farther than BANDITS. Full Story